A Recent Sohbet – Abdur Rahman’s Corner

Peace, one and all

I wanted to share the text of a recent sohbet, from the 6th December 2024. The theme of the sohbet was humility, suffering and the heart. As God wills, I hope to offer some reflections on these readings soon.

May the hearts of the lovers be opened.

Bury your existence in the earth
of obscurity. For anything which grows without first being buried
will never produce proper fruit.
Ibn Ata’illah, Hikam 11

Murid, conceal your nafs
and bury it in obscurity until it is intimate with it, happy with it
and finds it sweeter than honey, and until self-display becomes more bitter than colocynth. If you bury it in the soil of obscurity and it’s roots spread out in it, then you will pluck its fruits and obtain it’s yield: the secret of sincerity and realisation of the station of the elite of the elite. If you do not bury it in the earth of obscurity and allow it to give itself renown, it’s tree dies or its fruits drop off.
Ahmad Ibn Ajiba’s commentary on Hikam 11

Of anything I did which was not for your sake, I repent.
And if I suffered for anyone other than you, I repent.
Also, of what I will do for you from now on,
If I could have done it better, I repent.
Khwaja Nasir Al-Din Tusi, A Thousand Years of Persian Rubaiyat, p.318

If you do not do as Attar has told you
every sorrow you suffer will turn to dust.
Attar, Fifty Poems of Attar, no. 22

Who said that the eternally alive is dead?
Who said that the sun of hope is dead?
That enemy of the sun came to the roof,
Closed his eyes and said, ‘The sun is dead’.
Hz. Mevlana, A Thousand Years of Persian Rubaiyat, p257

Beware, the grace of God comes suddenly.
It comes to an alert heart.
Empty the tent of your being of yourself.
When it is empty, the king will enter the tent.
Hz. Mevlana, A Thousand Years of Persian Rubaiyat, p.259

To be a dervish is very easy,
Fill with love until you’re empty
Dost Quartet, Didn’t I Tell You?